PRAISE FOR THE SHIFTERS UNBOUND NOVELS
“Danger, desire, and sizzling-hot action . . . Jennifer Ashley walks the razor’s edge of primal passion.”
—New York Times bestselling author, Alyssa Day
“[A] must-buy series for paranormal romance lovers.”
—Fiction Vixen
“Stellar worldbuilding.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Ashley’s Shiftertown books are the closest thing to a sure bet in paranormal romance.”
—RT Book Reviews (4½ stars)
“With her usual gift for creating imaginative plots fueled by scorchingly sensual chemistry, RITA Award–winning Ashley begins a new sexy paranormal series that neatly combines high-adrenaline suspense with humor.”
—Booklist
“Engaging paranormal romance.”
—Smexy Books
“One of my top paranormal romance series with its complex political and social issues and some intense, hot romances.”
—All Things Urban Fantasy
“[A] first-rate hero, exceptional storytelling, and a seductive and sweet romance to satisfy any fan.”
—Fresh Fiction
“This novel [seemed] as though it was superglued to my hands because I couldn’t pry it from my fingers.”
—Rabid Reads
“Wickedly sexy . . . Are you new to the Shifters Unbound series? Already a fan? Either way, I think you’ll enjoy your time with these rambunctious, charismatic, loyal Shifters.”
—Harlequin Junkie
Titles by Jennifer Ashley
Shifters Unbound
PRIDE MATES
PRIMAL BONDS
BODYGUARD
WILD CAT
HARD MATED
MATE CLAIMED
PERFECT MATE
(An InterMix eBook)
LONE WOLF
(An InterMix eBook)
TIGER MAGIC
FERAL HEAT
(An InterMix eBook)
WILD WOLF
BEAR ATTRACTION
(An InterMix eBook)
SHIFTER MATES
(Anthology)
MATE BOND
LION EYES
BAD WOLF
WILD THINGS
WHITE TIGER
GUARDIAN’S MATE
RED WOLF
MIDNIGHT WOLF
The Mackenzies
THE MADNESS OF LORD IAN MACKENZIE
LADY ISABELLA’S SCANDALOUS MARRIAGE
THE MANY SINS OF LORD CAMERON
THE DUKE’S PERFECT WIFE
A MACKENZIE FAMILY CHRISTMAS
THE SEDUCTION OF ELLIOT MCBRIDE
THE UNTAMED MACKENZIE
(An InterMix eBook)
THE WICKED DEEDS OF DANIEL MACKENZIE
SCANDAL AND THE DUCHESS
(An InterMix eBook)
RULES FOR A PROPER GOVERNESS
THE SCANDALOUS MACKENZIES
(Anthology)
THE STOLEN MACKENZIE BRIDE
A MACKENZIE CLAN GATHERING
(An InterMix eBook)
A JOVE BOOK
Published by Berkley
An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014
Copyright © 2018 by Jennifer Ashley
Excerpt from Scandal Above Stairs copyright © 2018 by Jennifer Ashley
Penguin Random House supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin Random House to continue to publish books for every reader.
A JOVE BOOK and BERKLEY are registered trademarks and the B colophon is a trademark of Penguin Random House LLC.
Ebook ISBN: 9780698196346
First Edition: May 2018
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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To all the Shifters Unbound readers—you are amazing.
Thank you.
CONTENTS
Praise for the Shifters Unbound Novels
Titles by Jennifer Ashley
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
EPILOGUE
Excerpt from Scandal Above Stairs
CHAPTER ONE
“You Angus?”
Angus Murray, black wolf of the New Orleans Shiftertown and bouncer in this New Orleans bar, made a show of looking around. Music thumped, the darkness broken by swirling colored strobes and the small white light above the front door. Angus stood in that light’s shadow.
“I don’t know,” he answered. “Am I?”
The man addressing him was a suit—too clean-cut, every hair in place—but he had the craggy face of a man who used to be a soldier. He’d traded military for civilian in a big way, and was polished and slick, way out of place in this Shifter-groupie bar.
“I’m recruiting you for a job,” the suit said.
Angus looked down on him from his six-foot-five height and rubbed away a bead of sweat before it could trickle into his close-cropped beard.
“Already have a job.” Angus gestured to the packed, five-story bar with a staircase running up the center. Couples snaked around each other on the dance floors or made out in dark corners. Shifters and humans mixed—Shifters because they were bored, humans because they were excited to be around Shifters. “I make sure partying humans and Shifters don’t hurt one another, and themselves.”
Case in point—a human male getting in a female Shifter’s face. He was drunk, waving his beer bottle at her, and the next second, he hit her with it.
Female Shifters could take care of themselves, so Angus didn’t move until the female rose in a snarl of rage and tried to tie the human into a knot. Her Collar went off in an attempt to dampen her violence, but it didn’t stop her from hanging the man upside down by his heels.
Angus waded to her. “Put him down, love.”
The woman, a Feline Shifter, had a bruise on her cheek and fire in her eyes. “The dickhead hit me. Becau
se I didn’t want to go do dirty things in the alley with him.”
“I know. I saw. But you have to let him go.”
Angus spoke sternly. He was supposed to keep Shifters from hurting humans, no matter what the idiot humans did, so Shifters wouldn’t be arrested and executed. No violence against humans. That was the rule. The Feline was from his Shiftertown, but Angus couldn’t cut her any slack.
The Feline gave Angus a sudden smile, her long wildcat teeth showing. “Sure thing,” she said, and dropped the man on his head.
The man howled and scrambled around, trying to get to his feet. The Feline dusted off her hands and disappeared back into the crowd, to the cheers of her friends.
Angus helped the human to stand. “You should go.”
The man jerked from Angus’s grasp. “Don’t touch me, freak. I want that bitch arrested. And I’m suing this place.”
Angus gripped his shoulder. “Not a suggestion. Go.”
He put just enough growl into it. Angus was large and strong, and usually scowling, which helped. His cub, Ciaran, said it made him look like a wolf with a toothache.
The man opened his mouth to argue, got a good look at Angus’s eyes, gulped, and spun away. He slouched unhurriedly out of the bar, muttering that he was tired of this place anyway.
The suit materialized from the shadow where he’d retreated. “I’m right. You’re exactly who we’re looking for.”
That didn’t sound good. “To do what?”
The man beckoned Angus to follow him and turned away.
Angus didn’t like beckoners. The raised, curling finger was annoying, the gesture saying the beckoner believed himself to be in charge. This guy was clearly Shifter Bureau, because only one of them would walk into a Shifter bar and order people around.
Angus followed the suit for two reasons. One, his shift was almost over and another bouncer had arrived to take his place. Two, Angus feared in the back of his mind that if he didn’t make a show of respecting Shifter Bureau agents, they’d use his son as leverage. Ciaran was all Angus had. Ciaran’s mum had gone to the Summerland, dead and dust, but she’d been dead to Angus years before that. The one love in Angus’s life was the little wolf cub with the smart-ass mouth.
The suit led him to the manager’s office. It was empty; the manager rarely came in here.
As the man shut the door, Angus leaned against the desk, folded his arms, and crossed one booted foot over the other. Closing yourself off, Dad, Ciaran would say. You have to let other people in.
Other Shifters, sure. Not assholes who worked for Shifter Bureau.
“What’s the favor?” Angus snarled the words. “You don’t mean a job with pay.”
The suit shook his head, unworried about being alone back here with an irritated Lupine Shifter. His dark hair shone in the office’s light, his eyes sharp and blue. One edge of his suit coat drifted back to show Angus the butt of a pistol in a holster. The pistol looked odd—probably a tranquilizer or Taser. Whatever.
“No pay,” the man confirmed. “But you’ll do it. We need you.”
“I’m touched.” Angus stood up, wanting his full height advantage when he told this dickwad what to do with himself. “I’m also busy.”
“It’s not a suggestion.” The man echoed Angus’s earlier words, another mannerism that annoyed him.
“Okay, look,” Angus said. “I know you Bureau shits think you can come and tell Shifters what to do, but you have rules too. I’m working a job to keep my cub fed and clothed. I’m allowed to do that, without interference. I don’t have to drop everything to do favors for Shifter Bureau whenever they want extra muscle.”
The suit reached into his coat pocket and withdrew a card and a small manila envelope. He held out the card to Angus, and when Angus made no move to take it, he dropped it on the desk.
“I’m Jayson Haider, special operations. We’re recruiting you because you’re a tracker, a good one, and we need you to track a particularly evasive target.”
Haider pulled a couple of grainy photos out of the envelope and slapped them on the desk.
The first photo showed, from a distance, a woman with long hair, her face half turned from the viewer as though she had no idea she had a telephoto lens on her. There was just enough resolution to make out that she had a pointed face, a lot of hair, and a scowl that could match Angus’s for fierceness.
The second and third photos were from even farther away, and showed an animal—no clue what it was from that distance—running away.
“The subject is Tamsin Calloway. She’s Collarless, on the run, and needs to be brought in.”
Angus touched the photos, willing their blurriness to clarify, but they remained fuzzy and hard to discern.
“By me,” Angus stated.
“By you.”
“Why?” Angus shoved the photos away. “If you want to round up a Collarless Shifter, I’m sure you have plenty of Shifters at your beck and call to do that dirty work. I don’t know this woman.”
“No?” Haider actually looked surprised. Did he think all Shifters were best friends with one another? What a dickbrain. “She knew your brother.”
All the air rushed out of Angus’s lungs. By the time he inhaled again, rage seared every inch of his body. “You shut the fuck up about my brother.”
Gavan, Angus’s older brother, was dead, killed years ago when he’d tried to break Shifters out of captivity. He’d been the leader of a covert group who’d tried first to negotiate with Shifter Bureau and the governments of various countries to free Shifters, and then had turned to violence.
Gavan had led marches and attacks against Shifter Bureau offices, wanting to show the threat Shifters could be if they chose. At least that’s what Shifter Bureau claimed they’d wanted. Angus hadn’t seen Gavan since the night he and Gavan had argued and then fought with teeth and claws about Angus joining him.
Angus had thought the group was pointless and stupid and would only get Shifters killed. Gavan had called him a coward and an ass-licker. They’d parted in fury. The kicker was that Angus’s mate, April, had taken Ciaran and joined Gavan.
The next time Angus had seen Gavan was when he’d been dead, shot and laid out next to the rest of his followers—including April—waiting for the Guardian to send them to the Goddess. Angus and his Shiftertown leader had insisted that Shifter Bureau let their funeral be in the Shifter way—their souls released and their bodies rendered to dust when the Guardian thrust his magical sword through their hearts—rather than having them buried in a mass grave. Shifters had a horror of burial. If Shifters’ bodies weren’t reduced to dust, their souls could float free, easy pickings for anyone magical, like the Fae, to enslave.
The New Orleans Shiftertown’s Guardian had dispatched first Gavan, then April and the others, while Angus had shielded Ciaran from the sight.
If this woman in the photo had been one of Gavan’s, why was she still alive and roaming around when those who’d followed Gavan were dead and gone? And how close to Gavan had she been?
Or was this all bullshit on the part of Shifter Bureau? Angus wouldn’t put it past them to rile him up over his brother to get him to find this woman for them for whatever reason. Maybe Angus’s name had come up when they’d drawn the who-should-we-be-a-pain-in-the-ass-to-today? lottery.
“I’m asking again,” Angus said. “Why me? Don’t you have other bloodhounds to round up Shifters for you?”
“She’s been seen in the area,” Haider said without changing expression. “If she was close to your brother, she might trust you.”
“Doubt it. Why do you want her so bad? What can one fairly young female Shifter do to chafe the hide of Shifter Bureau?”
At last Haider showed some emotion—weariness, frustration, and anger. “She stirs up other Shifters, sabotages Shifter Bureau vehicles, breaks into offices and destroys records, and hara
sses agents. It’s a possibility that she killed two agents in Shreveport a month ago. We need to bring her in.”
“A possibility?” Angus could sympathize with a Shifter who riled up the Bureau, but Shifters weren’t killers. Fighters, yes, but not murderers.
“Two agents were found cut to pieces,” Haider answered in clipped tones. “A Shifter did it, all right.”
“Let me get this straight. You want me to chase after a woman who might have killed two humans, but you don’t know, and all I have to go on are these blurry photos? And she once upon a time knew my brother?” Angus held up his hands. “Forget it. I’m not in love with the Bureau enough to help you fix your screwups.”
Haider’s eyes narrowed. “You will do it, or we can revisit just how much you had to do with your brother’s revolt.”
Angus only gave him a tired look. “I was cleared of that years ago. I’ll be cleared of it again. I had nothing to do with it and everyone knows it.”
“All right.” The man straightened up, his mouth tightening in a grim line. “I didn’t want to do this. I hoped you’d cooperate, but you’re forcing my hand.”
“No offense, Haider, but piss off. I’m clocking out and going home.” Angus moved to the computer on the desk to tap out his code to finish his hours, but Haider spoke again.
“Your son. Ciaran.”
Angus stilled, his fingers hovering above the touch screen. “What about him?”
“He isn’t home. My agents have orders to look after him until you bring in Tamsin Calloway.”
Angus didn’t hear anything after the first few words. He launched himself over the desk and into Haider, slamming the man against the nearest wall.
“First rule,” he snarled, his face changing to the beast between his human form and his black wolf’s. “Don’t touch the cubs.”
“He won’t be hurt,” Haider said, calm for a man with a wolf’s claws around his throat. “If you cooperate.”
“Fuck you, dickhead—” Angus’s words cut off in a crackle of electricity and searing pain as his Collar and the Taser in Haider’s hand went off at the same time.